Japan’s Yukio Hatoyama has revealed he dislikes whale meat, a newspaper has reported in an unusual confession for the prime minister of a country that defies Western criticism of whaling.

“I hate whale meat,” Hatoyama said during a meeting with his visiting Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday, the Sankei Shimbun reported on Saturday.

Most Japanese (and most people in other countries where there still is whaling, like Iceland and Norway) don’t eat whale meat. Continuing whaling just serves the special interests of small minorities, at the detriment of the global ecosystem. Time to stop it forever.

November 12 2009. A major review of Japanese government spending could spell the end to whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, according to Greenpeace, after the review committee proposed massive cuts in subsidies to a body which funds the so-called scientific research programme: here.

US President Barack Obama arrives today in Tokyo at the start of his first trip to Asia. While he will also stop off in South Korea and the APEC summit in Singapore, the central focus of the tour is China and the underlying economic and strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington: here. And here.

Visiting US President Barack Obama faced a mass protest in central Tokyo on Friday as activists demanded the withdrawal of the 47,000 US troops still based in Japan: here.

Some people just don’t know when to shut up. Japanese whalers ridiculous PR: here.